For most of 2025, I reveledin the experience of attending the Somni recording sessions in Utrecht back in January. Listening to the album released in late November only increased my amazement at the beauty of the whole album—so much so that I just splurged on a Dolby Atmos speaker system. The enormity of the album is captured in my review (click here) and in my making it the FunkCity.net Album of the Year so I won’t rehash those accolades here.
One of the fascinating parts of the recording session and the recording itself was that all four Snarky Puppy drummers were at the recording sessions and on four different drum kits. Jason “JT” Thomas, Larnell Lewis, Jamison Ross, and Nikki Glaspie sat in line on four different kits, each configured differently. Looking at the kits from the podium where Michael League and Jules Buckley stood, the largest kit was on the left and the smallest on the right; from the drummers’ perspective, of course, it was reversed, with the largest on the right.
It will be covered extensively in the drummers’ comments, but the largest kit was named “Bonzo,” the second kit was named “Omar,” the third kit was named “Sput,” and the fourth kit was named “Steve.” You can see a partial view in the cover photo, which was taken just prior to the third session from behind “Omar.”
It was remarkable because in between songs the foursome would perform a sort of musical chairs where they would switch kits depending on the song, and I believe they might have had different drummer arrays for each song in different sessions, so they had to be on their A game to stay with the tunes, which at the time were represented by numbers only (the titles came later).
The drums (and percussion) were a prominent feature on the whole album, but particularly on the song “Recurrent” which contains a 5-minute long drum cuatrao (solo x 4) in which the drummers pass off to each other. You can watch the video to the right. In the overhead screenshot from the video (below), you can see the layout of the drum kits. For the album version of Recurrent, Larnell is on the big kit (Bonzo) on the far right, Nikki is on Omar, JT is on Sput and Jamison is on Steve.
The drums (and percussion) were a prominent feature on the whole album, but particularly on the song “Recurrent” which contains a 5-minute long drum cuatrao (solo x 4) in which the drummers pass off to each other. You can watch the video to the right. In the overhead screenshot from the video, you can see the layout of the drum kits. For the album version of Recurrent, Larnell is on the big kit (Bonzo) on the far right, Nikki is on Omar, JT is on Sput and Jamison is on Steve.
The drummers go down the line from Larnell to Jamison twice so in effect there’s eight solos, seven handoffs before the band and orchestra returns. With all of that in mind, I reached out to the Snarky Puppy drummers to get their take on the Somni recording sessions with a few questions and am excited to present their responses here in a Q&A format, so here we go!
Jamison Ross
Jason “JT” Thomas
Nikki Glaspie
Larnell Lewis
Drummer photos from the sessions – Annemone Taake Photography
Have you ever played in a setting like that with three other drummers, and how did that impact you?
JT: No. The furthest I have gone was, of course, when we started doing the three-drummer thing, which technically started with Culcha Vulcha, me, Sput, and Larnell, but it was only combinations of two drummers per track. And then we got to Immigrance and it was me, Jamison, and Larnell. We began doing the three drummers on every single song and did the same thing with Empire Central. The impact that it had on me was how fun it was. When you get a group of people in a room together that are just really there to serve the music, it has an indescribable impact because it’s such an emotional thing, but everybody is really there to have fun and serve the music and make the music be everything that it can be.
People asked how we decide who plays on what part of the song, and egos were never a thing, since we’ve done it on previous records, where it’s like, “Ah, I only got to play two bars on that section of that song. I need to get more bars on this next song, and Larnell got too many. He shouldn’t start this part. He did the solo on this last song.” That’s silly—it never went there. If anything, it was more like, “No, JT, you’re playing that. I’m like, nah, but it sounds better over there. No, no, no, you’re doing that.” And we were totally fine with that because it was all about the music. So the camaraderie, the musicianship, the fun that we had creatively, and how far we were able to just push the limits having four kits this time. Sonically, we had so many different options, and the way we set up the kits and how much fun we even had with that, just putting in the order of how far we wanted each song to go. We had parameters set because initially Mike (Michael League) didn’t want any toms, and we were like, “We have to have some toms.”
Now we didn’t do our full-blown, regular setups on every kit like we’ve done before, but we’ve got to have some toms. But even when we did that, it was very specific; the four of us with Mike really hashed out the toms that we wanted to have, the options that we wanted to have, the sizes of the drums that we wanted to have, and even the heads that we chose for certain drums, just the collective coming together, I guess you could say, the creative side of it, how we really wanted the drums to affect the music and not just be a distraction of any kind. It was really all about the music.
So that was the fun part about it, especially with the music this time, because Mike’s compositions were so moody. So we really had to make sure we had the right drums for the right moment in those songs, or it really could have kind of messed up the vibe of the whole thing. So the musicianship, the fun, the collective, everybody putting their ideas in, and how many different ideas we gave each other in that process too had an impact.
We all pushed each other to try some different things. And that’s always a fun thing to be a part of; who wouldn’t want to be a part of a big creative party, especially with drums? We had drums everywhere.
It was hilarious, but it was so fun because we will probably never get to do anything like that again, unless we do another project like that. Who’s going to hire four drummers for one project? It was crazy enough to do that. So just the fact that we got to do that and had so much fun doing it. And the four of us, play-wise, were so similar but very different.
But it was so awesome to see the four of us come together stylistically and push each other that way too. Even if we felt a little uncomfortable, and speaking of uncomfortable, that was fun too. Everybody had to adjust to each other’s setup because on previous records, we stayed on our kits and didn’t switch kits in between songs. We switched up parts, but we always stayed on our kit. This time we decided to ramp this up and do musical chairs to make this real interesting. And that was a ball.
That was a ton of fun because of the difference in height, especially how extreme it is between Nickki and Larnell. Nikki is about 5’4″, and Larnell is like 6’4″, with this ridiculous wingspan with his arms, and he’s just a big dude. Jamison and I are kind of right in the middle. I’m like 5’9″; I think Jameson may be closer to six feet. So everybody had to make sure each kit was set up to a point where we didn’t touch 85% to 90%. We just had to be able to sit down and make little minor adjustments, maybe to the seat height, or I think a lot of times we wouldn’t take in our drum thrones. So, like seat height, maybe the snare height, but not even snare height that much.
We were literally just taking our boxes that we had for our mix for our ears. That was the only thing besides our sticks. But for most of the kits, it was only switching out a snare drum here and there; we didn’t really do a whole lot of adjusting.
So it was really that attitude of everybody being a little uncomfortable at each station. could get as comfortable as you can, but no big major adjustments to make it really comfortable for yourself. That was awesome too, that we all worked together in that sense.
Larnell was probably the most uncomfortable out of all of us because he’s just so much taller than we are and has such a longer arm reach. So for him, everything was way closer than he would like. But even on some kits, we had it far enough out so he wasn’t just cramped. On some of those kits, we understood this is a little further than I would like, but we made it work. And the music lent itself to that because on this record the drum parts were not so much simple, but they were just really minimal, which was the first reason why Mike didn’t really want toms. The grooves on all of these songs are pretty standard, basic kick, snare, and hi-hat grooves. So we really didn’t need a whole lot of other things. But for colors and transitional points, it’d be nice to have some tonal options other than just kick, snare, and hi-hat. So that’s why we added some toms.
This definitely wasn’t a typical Snarky Puppy record where drums are just going off. For the four of us, we were really chill, which was a blast too, because all of us share that similarity as far as touch and sensitivity to the music. We all really pay attention to that and are very sensitive to that.
So it was just fun just being involved in that whole thing—a long way of saying how it impacted me creatively and musically. The continued bonding of drummers in a situation like that, having to get comfortable with each other’s setups and playing musical chairs with the different kits and trying so many different things and swapping out cymbals, was just a ball—it was so much fun.
Larnell: I’ve had the opportunity to play in settings with 3 other drummers for performances, but nothing quite like recording Somni with Snarky Puppy! Usually, I’m at a drum festival or a drum camp, and the featured drummers are jamming to a song or two. We’re usually playing interlocking grooves or even playing a version of percussion to fit into the available spaces musically. Recording this album with not only 3 other drummers but also with the addition of 5 percussionists (6 percussionists when Mason joined us on one song) required discipline and a clear vision of the end result: the layering of sounds and feel in an ensemble. This experience was a reminder that the ego’s place in our mission is to fuel our sense of responsibility in our collective music making and unified groove.
Nikki: I have NEVER played in a setting like that before. I have played with other drummers before, probably more than others, just because I am a female drummer and people have thought of me as an accessory. Obviously later in my career that hasn’t been the case. This experience was incredible! I really saw it as an opportunity to not only learn from 3 of the best drummers on the planet but to also share and bond in a way that most drummers don’t get to. We all had a single goal in mind. We all wanted to make the best music possible, and we combined our powers to do so. I had a blast.
How would you describe the feel of each kit—what kind of music is each best suited for?
JT: We named all the kits because it sounded better than calling each kit “station one” or “kit one.” Each kit was picked for a specific reason, for a specific sound, for a specific vibe, from the kick sizes to the tom sizes to the configuration of them. We wanted them to have a name for their own identity.
So the first kit from left to right was called Bonzo, which is for John Bonham (Led Zeppelin). This kit had huge, big drums. You normally wouldn’t see a kit with those sizes. The feel of Bonzo was like a big warm blanket—who doesn’t love a big warm, heavy-weighted blanket to snuggle up on the couch and pass out with for 12 hours? Because of the sizes and the way we had it tuned, those drums filled up so much space with you just tapping on them. You didn’t have to play a whole lot of drum stuff. You could just play the most simple thing ever. And that big old kick drum was a 24-inch that just filled the room up. I think we did like 13, 16, and 18 toms, and we had them tuned low and dampened. So they were thick and warm, but they sounded and felt so good to play. Those toms took us back to rock music in the back of your head and maybe some 70s kind of soul music. The way we had them tuned and dampened, we could have gotten away with some serious Al Green with those toms. So you just kind of wanted to love them a little bit when you played them, because they loved you back. So that kit was a ton of fun to play. When we had to dig in, that’s where you feel kind of the rock 70s; you know, Led Zeppelin got to bashing and kind of took the dampening off and let them air out a little bit. They will growl at you. On that kit was probably the biggest crash we had, which was fun too.
Omar, the second one from the left, was a fun kit because we had the standard kit in front of us, which was just a basic four piece kit: kick, snare, hat, one rack tom, one four tom. On the left side, we had like a small 18 inch kick drum, tuned up like a jazz kick drum. And it was just kick, snare, hat, different kind of hats, different kind of snare. And we had two rides, so like a real jazz setup, even kind of way back in the jazz scene when they really weren’t doing the whole tom thing. So that was fun because I’ve always wanted to do that. but I never have. I’ve got the drums to be able to do it, but I’m always bringing the minimum the gig requires. Setting up a whole lot of drums because setting up drums is fun until the gig is over. And then you’re like, why did I bring all this stuff? Because now you’ve got to break it back down. So, I finally got to experience what that feels like to have this kit to the left. We had some like spiral things that Larnell had that when you hit the cymbal, it kind of almost like a Slinky. It was really slick, but it gave a different sound too. On one song, Jamison was playing the main part of the kit, as far as the snare and the hat and maybe the toms, but the kick drum, he was actually playing with his left foot on the jazz kit. And it totally changed the whole vibe of the part that he was traditionally just playing on the regular kit. And when he did that, everybody was like, Yep, that’s it. You got to play that part on that kick drum. Typically you just play the kick drum with your right foot, if you’re righty. So I had fun messing around with that in between songs and times we had off. It was fun to feel what it was like, because I’ve never been a big double bass player. I can do some basic things with my left foot. That kit was adventurous, as far as the left side.
The kit next to that was Sput for Robert “Sput” Searight. It was the most standard kit, even more than Omar, because the two middle kits were very similar, except for that thing Omar had happening to the left. We kept Sput very straightforward, and that’s exactly how it felt to play it. Even with the adjusting, setup-wise it was a little different than most of us would have done, but it felt comfortable, felt like home. And it felt great. All these kits felt and sounded great, of course, because they’re Yamaha.
The fourth kit, far right from the podium was Steve, as in Steve Jordan. This kit was the most fun to play, and it was also the most creative kit that we put together, because we used drums from Yamaha that most people probably would have never thought to use in a setting like this. And if they did think to use it, they probably would think that it would never work. But this kit was amazing. Steve was the kit that we kind of had the most fun with because we knew from the jump that the drums we wanted to use were untraditional from all the other kits. Steve was the most fun for me to play, and I think it was the most fun for everybody to play, tied with Bonzo. It makes sense because the extremes between the both of them were drastic. So we had like David and Goliath, with Goliath being Bonzo and David, the little dude, with Steve. Steve gave me a little nervous every time I sat down because it was just so different. Thankfully, again, the way that we meticulously assigned each kit to each section of each song helped me get past that. That, for me, the feel of that kit was the most nervous I felt sitting behind any of those kits. That kit was the one that kind of kept me on the edge of my seat and got the adrenaline going, which was totally a fun thing to do. Steve and Bonzo are kits that everybody’s been trying to recreate at home. It looked like a little toy or a beginner’s kit for a kid or something, but it absolutely is not. And this record will prove that. People are going to be shocked when they see the videos, and they look over there, and it’s like, is that? It is.
What kind of music is each kit best suited for? I’ll start with the two middle kits, which would be Sput and Omar. Those kits are the most general kits. If we would have had those two kits only, we could have done the entire repertoire of music. Even without Omar’s left-side kit, if it was just the two basic kits that were set up in the middle, it could have been anything for rock, jazz, funk, R&B, hip hop. Those two kits are a standard that you would see anywhere.
Bonzo could have worked on the entire music that we did for the Metropole record or a Snarky Puppy gig or Mark Lettieri, or some R&B and some jazz. Maybe not straight-ahead jazz, but possibly, because Tony Williams had a big kit too, but it wasn’t tuned the way we had it tuned. But Bonzo is best suited for stuff you would hear a Steve Gadd play or just some warm James Gadson, like Bill Withers-type soul music. Perhaps some good 70s R&B; if it were 80s or 90s they would call it throwback or neo-soul, which is some Marvin Gaye stuff. It’s definitely a versatile kit.
Steve, on the other hand, had limitations musically. So the best music suited for Steve is probably some James Brown stuff, more tight, funky James Brown. You could do some Meters and probably actually get away with doing some like Earth, Wind & Fire stuff. The kick drum was very shallow and very small. It was like a 20 by 8—typically, even with a 20-inch kick drum, it’s usually a 20 by 14 or 20 by 16 or 20 by 18, but with that shallow drum it almost just looks like a big pancake. It sounds great when you tune it a certain way; with the right heads it sounds a lot bigger than it appears to be. That kit doesn’t put out a lot of volume as far as the kick drum. I think today it would be best suited for hip-hop. We had only one tom set up for that—we had a snare tom, what they call a snom—it’s a snare and a tom mixed. It’s a 13-inch tom, but they put snares and a snare throw-off on it so that you could use it for either, and I think we had it used for a snare more than the tom, but the tone of it between that and the floor tom could work for a lot of different things. Steve being the one would have the most limitations, but in more of a general sense, there’s pretty much nothing we couldn’t do on each of those kits musically.
Larnell: The other drummer may have mentioned this already, but we sat down and gave each kit a name. This was helpful to remind us of the spirit and character of each kit that we built for the music. This also helped Michael understand the packaged sounds on each kit when assigning parts and sections. Bonzo was our “Bonham” kit in the “1 up, 2 down configuration” with big sizes (13T, 14FT, 18FT, 24BD, 14SN, and a 10”x4” Tom tuned high for added expression). We used that kit as our rock/pop option. Kit two was called “Omar,” which reflected our respect for Omar Hakim and his versatility. This was “1 up, 1 down” with a 20” kick and another 18” kick with snare and 2 cymbals on the left side. Kit 3 was called “Sput” to honour the blueprint of the band’s sound. This kit was the closest kit tuning and setup to the standard kit for the band. This was a 12”T, 16”FT, 22”BD, 13”x6.5” Recording Custom Brass (I love that snare!), and featured the 14”x8” Recording Custom Birch Snare. The last kit was named “Steve” with no connection to popular drummers with the first name “Steve.” This kit was our auxiliary kit, which was intended to fill in the “jungle” kit gap and provide a tighter sound in contrast to the other kits. At its base is the Yamaha Hip Gig with the 20”x8” kick, 13”x8” snare on legs as a floor tom, 16” FT, 14”SN, and a 14”x3” Piccolo snare. For cymbals, I can’t remember what we had. There were a lot of them, and we would swap cymbals out depending on the song.
Nikki: Each kit was totally different and we named each of them. The first kit left to right was named “Bonzo” because they were big drums like Bonham played. 24 kick, 13 rack, 16 and 18 floor toms. Big open sound. The 2nd kit was named “Omar” – Side 1: 20” Kick, 12” T, 14” FT, 14”x5.5 Snare. Side 2: 18” Kick, 14×5.5 SN
Which was your favorite kit to play and why?
JT: Steve had the most unique configuration and creative setup that I have ever played. I’ve never done anything like that, and left up to me, I never would because my brain is just so boring. It’s so much fun when you get together with other drummers that are like willing to try that, that, and that”—and then you finally get to—it’s amazing. When we got to Steve, we pulled the cover off. No rules whatsoever; let’s just do something really different from the other three kits. It pushed me creatively and made me nervous when I first sat down at it because I thought, “What am I going to play on this kit, and how is it going to sound? Thankfully, because we so meticulously picked what the kit was going to go each part, it just made sense for me because it actually gave me the options that I couldn’t do on the other kits, so that made me feel even more comfortable.
A close second—almost a tie– would be Bonzo, and for the opposite reason. The 70s and 80s rock kid in me– that’s what playing Bonzo made me feel like because of the big old toms and big old kick drum and big old cymbals, and I just felt like I was in my best MTV video 80s rock band fantasy. There’s so much that I could do on that kit that would be endless fun for me going through every 80s rock tune that I know that this kit would be perfect for.
Larnell: I liked playing the “Omar” and “Sput” kits because they’re closer to what I would normally play on gigs and sessions. I wanted to play the “Steve” kit more, but the parts I had didn’t allow me to stretch out on that kit. Bonzo was a bit tough for me, but we became friends by the end of the recording.
Nikki:My favorite kit was Bonzo because I love big drums. I think I felt the most comfortable behind that kit because I’ve spent some time with it. Pushing air through it is quite enjoyable.
Which kit-song pairing was your favorite, and why?
JT: I can remember a section in the first song released (Waves Upon Waves) where I was playing Omar and Nikki was playing Sput right beside me. It drops into what would be considered the bridge—this mean bass line groove with Mike (League) being doubled by trombones and tubas, and it’s got some anger on it—it’s a big shift from the way the song starts. When Nikki comes in, she’s just playing kicks and hi-hat—but Steve has the 22-inch kick, and the way we had that thing tuned, and we had this brash 13-inch snare drum cranked—when she got to that session and she came with the Indiana Jones whip crack, she came in with just 1000 percent authority. When she laid into that kit pairing for that section of that song was amazing; it just couldn’t get more perfect, and the way she played it was, of course, just utterly ridiculous, so that would definitely be one of my favorites. The next one was one that I played on that I just kind of got my basic two-and-four kind of Steve Gadd groove on on Bonzo. I was happy just playing—the groove was perfect and these drums sound perfect with it I can’t remember which one it was, either number five or number six. On It Stays With You, Jamison came in with some kind of tribal feel but also kind of rock a little bit. It had big toms, and the way we had Bonzo set up and tuned, man, what he played at the beginning, starting that tune off with drums, and that groove that he did was just freaking perfect. It was nothing that I would have come up with. I was thinking it’s almost like the most perfect drum part, and it definitely wasn’t on the demo. There was some of it that he played that was on the demo, but he definitely embellished it adding the toms, and those toms were so big and fat and perfect.
Larnell: “Between Worlds” on the Sput kit was my favourite to play because the song and kit suits my usual style of playing, so it was the most comfortable I was for the session.
“Recurrent” was also another favourite of mine to play. I can’t remember what kit I played, but I enjoyed playing behind the sax solo on that song! I felt free to move with the music.
Nikki: I would say my favorite was “It Stays with you”. Every kit was perfect in its functionality inside of the song. Each section really made sense in how the song moves along with the drum sounds and parts. JT played this jungle groove on Steve and the instrumentation of Steve was perfect. Same with the parts that Jamison played on Bonzo. All of it fit and we didn’t have to try.
What was your favorite memory of the weekend?
JT: First, it was definitely a very personal, emotional memory for me to have Tina, my wife, there. Tina was involved in a horrific automobile accident less than a mile away from our home in March of 2023. Her making it to that recording was a miracle. When she was in that accident, they were telling us she was never going to walk again. But by a miracle of God, she’s walking, she’s healing amazingly, and that was the first trip that she took. We had done a small flight, like a couple of hours, to test some months before that, just to see, and it pushed her probably too much.
We probably shouldn’t have done it, so I was a little hesitant, but for this recording, I really wanted her there, because I always want her to be with me when I get to do things like that. That’s not going to happen all the time, so I knew musically she would love it too. And if she’s never been able to travel with me a lot to Europe, because typically when I’m in Europe with whatever the band may be on the instrumental circuit, it’s a lot of bouncing around; every day you’re in a different place, and with the two of us it’s just not really conducive to bringing family with you, because it’s just hard.
So knowing that if she could do the flight, we would be in the same place for the entire time. I knew it would be great if she could really be there and experience this. I knew it was going to be a big thing for her to get back to some normalcy and wanting to travel again, because she travels a lot with me and even on her own, so that was huge. I don’t know any other way to put that, but it was huge on so many levels for her to be there and to get through the flight. The auto accident left her with a broken back, so at that point, when she made that session, she was still dealing with that. She was in PT, but she made it through the flight. She took some pain medicine on the plane to help her sleep, and being able to stretch her legs out was important, because now she’s got eight rods and eight screws in her back. I was a little worried, but she made it through the flight beautifully. When we got there, , being in the same room for a week was just beautiful, and then, the first day she came to the rehearsal, and all the guys got to see her, and they knew what she had just been through, and just seeing the love that she received from everybody was kind of amazing. So seeing her face, being able to be there, physically feeling good, and what that did for her mentally and spiritually and being like, “I’m healing great, I’m gonna be fine, I’m in Europe right now, and I’m in a little pain, but I’m having a ball, and I’m here with my husband, and this is fun with all our friends and people I love.” So that was a huge emotional memory that I will cherish forever.
Being a part of that recording was another thing, just being a part of something like that, the memory of the first rehearsal with the orchestra, playing the first song, “Waves, Waves Upon Waves,” which again, we only knew it as number one, the entrance of that song with the strings—man, feeling that and hearing that in the headphones, looking around the room, and just being like, “This is nuts.” I love orchestra, I love strings, and I’m one of those that if someone asks, What are you listening to? I’m likely to say the soundtrack to Star Wars, or some movie, and you know, not the actual pop songs, or whatever they make, but the actual soundtrack, the strings, and the music part, and I’ll just listen to that and disappear, like strings, orchestra music, and classical music. So to actually be a part of something like that and feel that energy in that room when that orchestra and those strings hit those first couple of notes in that song, between that and looking across the room, I got to see my wife with this big smile on her face, and she had the headphones on; that’s almost indescribable. Words don’t really describe how that made me feel, just having both of those things happen at the same time. It was utterly amazing, her being there, after what she had been through, and then that feeling of the strings hitting that first note in that song. Unforgettable, unforgettable, an iconic moment in my mind, the most precious memory ever, so two of my absolute, unforgettable memories from that.
Larnell: One of my favourite moments from the weekend was when our kits were setup and we all had a chance to start shedding and getting comfortable on the setups. Really, it’s always a good time to gather as drummers!
Nikki: This is a hard one because there were many moments that were special. I would say when all the drummers first got in the room and pulled out all of our cymbals and listened to all of the palettes at our disposal. I learned a lot about each of the other drummers ears and preferences, which was really cool. It was just an incredible experience of putting our heads together to create something unique. I’ve never had that experience before and I cherish it.
Tell the fans something they don't know about Snarky Puppy drummers!
JT: Man, our fan base is kind of crazy. They dig. They know a lot about all of us. Like, everything that we’re into, they dig and find it. I’ll get random messages sometimes in IG, like, “Man, what were you playing on this measure of this song from this thing you recorded?” I was like, 10 years ago? What? How did you find that?
Well, I’ll just start with some basic, easy things. All of us play multiple instruments. Definitely some are way better than others. Oh, we’re all foodies. Fans probably know Snarky Puppy in general are just food fanatics.
I once did a Christian prog-metal record—now I remember. System Failure. This was back in 2013– I think we recorded it even years before then, but I used a double pedal on that. I actually lied when they asked me if I could play it. I never owned a double pedal, but I figured, they’re sending me stuff. Prior to that session, it had never seen the light of day except for the one side of it. But the left part still had the little protective sleeve on it that it comes with when you take it out of the box. It still had that on it. It was, it was hilarious. So I broke that thing out for the session because they had some basic 16th note patterns that I could pull off. I was nervous as heck to play it, but I pulled it off. I was just bashing away for like two days tracking this record. That was a blast. Somost people probably have no idea about that record.
Most people probably don’t know when I first joined the band, my normal face and the way my eyebrows always look—I inherited them from my father, who could look angry and yet could be the happiest dude in the world, and his face creases right there. So they think I’m frowning, and I’m not. I’m generally a really happy, silly, goofy dude, but my face says, “Get away from me. I can’t stand you. I’m gonna smack you in the face.” So when I first started playing with Snarky, Mike, for a long time, thought I hated it. He was genuinely like, “Man, I would look back there and see your face. And I was like, this dude hates my guts. He hates this music. He just doesn’t want to be here.” But he told me that sometime last year, I had no idea all that time that he thought that.
And then Wes Stephenson, bass player with The Funky Knuckles and Mark Lettieri said the same thing, because I told him that story. He said, “Man, I honestly gotta tell you, the first couple of times I played with you, until I got to really know you, I thought the same thing. I used to have a bad tendency of closing my eyes when I played, but even with my eyes open just generally walking around, just in general conversation during the day, my face always looked like an angry man. I always looked like I was mad. So people probably think that I’m mad or angry when I play, but I’m not. I’m having a ball.
Also, do snarky drummers rehearse? It never happens. What is that? Here’s this song list of 30-plus songs. See you at the gig. That’s how it is.
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Larnell: We only get to see each other (maybe) once a year.
Nikki: All the drummers are very funny people. We were laughing the entire time!